County, city employees mount food drive with public’s help

Volusia County’s public-employee food drive competition is on again this year with a new twist — the public is competing, too.

ANDREW GANTSTAFF WRITER

Volusia County’s public-employee food drive competition is on again this year with a new twist — the public is competing, too.

The Feed the Need food drive, which brought the local Second Harvest Food Bank its biggest single collection effort last year, ends Wednesday — the day before Thanksgiving.

“We couldn’t do it without the county’s help, without our volunteers’ help or without the local businesses’ help,” said Bob Thomas, manager of Second Harvest’s Volusia branch. “It’s a total team effort to end hunger in our communities.”

Last year’s drive brought in about 38,000 pounds of food donated by employees of the county, 13 of its cities, the public school system and Daytona State College. The entities were competing against each other for the title of biggest per-employee donor, and the title went to Holly Hill, which brought in about 4,000 pounds from 103 employees (or almost 39 pounds per person).

That competition is back on this year. But there could also be a contest between the public employees and the public itself.

All of Volusia’s libraries will be accepting food donations to pay off fines of less than $25. (Two items pays off $5, and ten items eliminates up to $25.)

Thomas said the organization is hoping to reach 50,000 pounds this year, which would be another record. That much food would feed more than 1,500 families of four for a week.

“That’s just amazing to think about,” Thomas said. “That’s 1,500 families that don’t have to worry about where their next meal’s coming from.”

The donations stay close to home. Food donated in Holly Hill, for example, is distributed in Holly Hill, not another city. A couple of Volusia’s cities didn’t participate in last year’s drive out of concern over sending out food that was badly needed within the community.

Feed the Need will be accepting donations until Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. The county will announce the totals in the competition at the Dec. 6 County Council meeting.

Thomas said the best donations are canned meats, beans, peanut butter — high-protein foods good for people missing that nutrition — and cereal.

Last year, at the end of the food drive, 14,339 public employees had donated, and the average donation was about 2.5 pounds per person.